Not even a tense tete-a-tete in the gold-medal game on Friday could spoil the vibe at Paris’ biggest beach party.
Canada’s Brandie Wilkerson and Brazil’s Ana Patricia got into a shouting match on either side of the net in the tiebreaking third set of the beach volleyball final of the Paris Olympics.
The referee tried to keep the peace, but it was the Eiffel Tower Stadium DJ who cooled tempers on the sand by playing John Lennon’s Imagine over the PA system.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The players laughed and clapped, the crowd applauded and sang along, Wilkerson was shown a yellow card and the top-ranked Brazilians left with the gold medal.
“We’re competitors and we are fighting for the same thing: There’s only one gold medal,” Wilkerson said during a post-match news conference in which the two laughed and jokingly put up their fists as if they were going to brawl it out. “Immediately after the game, it’s all love and respect. We bring out the best in each other and I’m honored to play against this team.”
Ana Patricia and Duda rallied from an 11-5 deficit to take the first-to-21, win-by-two first set 26-24, and Canada won the second 21-12. Brazil opened up a 12-7 lead in the first-to-15 tiebreaker when, after a joust at the net, Wilkerson and Ana Patricia began pointing fingers at each other.
Photo: Reuters
The second referee, the one at sand level, moved out to separate the two players, but Wilkerson continued to argue and picked up a yellow card.
As the Brazilians got into position to serve for the next point, the DJ began playing Imagine, a song calling for unity and peace.
The message resonated with the players.
Photo: AFP
Wilkerson told reporters afterward that it was all a misunderstanding: She was responding to her family, cheering in the crowd behind the Brazilians and Ana Patricia thought Wilkerson was taunting her.
“We’re pretty amped up, partners are coming in, refs are coming in. So it was a bit of a mess, but after the game, and even right when they came to shake our hands, still on the court, there was an immediate hug and just kind of like: ‘Hey, it’s all good,’” Wilkerson said.
BOXING
Photo: Reuters
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif defied a gender controversy to win gold.
Khelif, 25, claimed a unanimous points decision win over China’s Yang Liu in the women’s 66kg final for her first Olympic medal.
“I’m very happy. For eight years this has been my dream and I’m now the Olympic champion and gold medalist,” Khelif said. “I’ve worked for eight years, no sleep, eight years tired. Now I’m Olympic champion.”
Photo: Reuters
Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting — who was to fight Julia Szeremeta of Poland for gold after press time last night — were disqualified from last year’s world championships after failing gender eligibility testing.
However, the International Olympic Committee has said that the two fighters were born and raised as women and have passports saying that.
“I want to thank all the people who have come to support me,” Khelif said after the final at Roland Garros. “All the people from Algeria and all the people at my base. I want to thank all the team, my coach. Thank you so much.”
ATHLETICS
On the track at the Stade de France, US sprint superstar Sha’Carri Richardson made up for her silver in the women’s individual 100m with a gold-winning anchor run in the 4x100m relay.
Richardson turned on the afterburners to overhaul Britain, Germany and France in the home straight as the US quartet took gold in a season’s best time of 41.78 seconds.
“The moment that I will describe is realizing that when we won, the USA ladies, it was a phenomenal feeling for all of us,” Richardson said.
However, the US men again failed in their bid to win their first 4x100m gold since Sydney in 2000 with a disastrous baton fumble.
Already missing 100m individual champion Noah Lyles through illness, a botched baton change completely slowed the US momentum, allowing Canada to snatch gold ahead of South Africa and Britain.
“You can never count us out, we feel great,” Canadian runner Aaron Brown said.
A nail-biting women’s heptathlon saw Nafissatou Thiam become the first woman in history to win three consecutive Olympic golds, sealing victory ahead of Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
Thiam, the 2016 and 2020 Olympic champion, finished with 6,880 points after the 800m, the final event in the seven-discipline test of endurance.
Separately, Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet won the women’s 10,000m gold to add to her 5,000m title as defending champion Sifan Hassan finished third.
SOCCER
Substitute Sergio Camello struck twice in extra-time to settle the men’s soccer final as Spain beat France 5-3.
It had looked as though Spain were going to run away with victory when they recovered from conceding an early goal to lead 3-1 at halftime.
However, France staged a memorable comeback with Jean-Philippe Mateta converting a stoppage-time penalty.
That took the final into extra-time, in which Camello emerged as the hero.
He gave Spain the lead again in the 100th minute of an absorbing game and scored again at the death as his side ran away with the gold medal.
Morocco won the bronze medal by beating Egypt 6-0.
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